“It’s all shit,” I say, tossing another vial into the sink. Ezrina’s lab in the Wonderground is bustling like a beehive, and yet not one damn productive thing is happening.
“Everything we’ve come up with is total trash,” I tell the wiry-haired mad scientist next to me. Ezrina and I have been working shoulder to shoulder nonstop, for the last six days. To be fair, Skyla, Logan, Coop, Laken, Brody, and Ellis have been scurrying around getting in our way—trying to help. And the children are here en mass. It’s like working in a damn daycare center. “And when I say trash, that’s a very generous statement on my part.”
Nev chuckles. “I’ll admit, it’s difficult to save the world when there’s a coloring book less than three feet away.”
“I don’t know.” I shoot a wry smile at the aforementioned coloring book. “That coloring book might have more answers than we do right about now.”
A couple of dark-haired, pint-sized minions, who happen to share my brother’s blue eyes and deep dimples, run over and attach themselves to each of my legs.
“Youundyattack!” Nathan shouts as he swats me three times fast, just shy of my balls.
“Come on, Daddy!” Barron kicks me in the shins. “Picksus up!”
I scoop both of the little devils into my arms, just as Tobie runs over with her dark curls bouncing. That pink frilly dress Laken put her in makes her look like a princess.
Nathan slaps his hands over my cheeks before I can say a word.
“Daddy, I want, I want….” He sticks his finger up my nose before he finishes his sentence, and I wriggle my head until his finger is back where it belongs, far away from any of my orifices.
“I’m not your daddy,” I’m quick to inform them. “I’m youruncle. Now what do you want?” I bounce them in my arms and they laugh hysterically.
Barron tugs at my nose. “We wanna see Daddy’shead.” He growls out that last word and all three of the munchkins burst out with a maniacal cackle.
Tobie tugs at my shirt. “Pa-wease, Daddy!Pa-wease!”
I know exactly the head they speak of. The old severed head that once belonged to my brother. Some might say it was better all around than this new and questionably improved version. It sat in a glass box filled with keeping solution, was destroyed by Gage’s henchmen when he took Ezrina’s family hostage for a time, frozen by Dudley, thawed out and placed right back in a glass box with blue keeping solution once again. And even though it’s become the mascot of the Wonderground, Skyla likes to tarp it when the kids are around. Personally, I think we should add a little backlighting to it and toss a crown made of toilet paper on top. Although toilet paper is so damn scarce now, it’s almost tantamount to gold.
I glance across the room at Skyla hunched over a microscope with baby Jaxson in her arms.
“You gotta ask your mom.” I put the boys down and they run screaming in her direction, and, of course, Tobie follows suit.
Cooper strides over with a dull laugh.
“I have no idea why Skyla keeps that thing around.” He rolls up his sleeves, and I can see the thick red welts over his skin.
“Geez.” I pull him in by the wrist. “Do you see this crap? Why is this still happening?” I ask Ezrina as I shake his arm before her.
“I see,” she says without a single thread of interest. “Cooper needs to hide. I can’t help him.”
Coop huffs at the thought. “I’m not hiding. I need to protect Laken and the kids.”
A sarcastic grin rides on my lips. “That’s what you got me for, buddy. Find a nice closet to call your own. I’ll have Tobie whip you up something in her Easy Bake once in a while. It’s good stuff. You’ll like it.”
“I’m not laughing.” He nods to Ezrina. “What have you got for me?”
Ezrina lets out an exasperated sigh. “Try the Spectators.”
“Try the Spectators?” I lift a brow. “What the hell is going on?”
Coop folds his arms across his chest. “We’re in a war if you haven’t noticed. As you pointed out, the Fems are behind this plague that’s got the planet by the balls. We need to find a cure. And, seeing that the Spectators now have the ability to turn on and off their condition, we’re going to see if we can’t get a few of them to volunteer to take on the virus. See if they can turn it on and off again.” He glances to Ezrina. “Is that right?”
“Right,” she grunts unconvincingly as she continues to work feverishly with the compounds before her.
“It’s not going to work.” I take a deep breath. “We’re not turning everyone on the planet into Spectators.”
“Not the planet, Wes,” Coop says as he walks on by. “Just our people.”
“Still not working,” I shout over to him. “Besides”—I say to Ezrina and Nev—“we need a global solution.”
